Predicting Student Learning: The Roles of Rapport, Immediacy, Learning Alliance, and Citizenship Behavior

Rapport, immediacy, learning alliance, classroom citizenship behavior, and observed classroom citizenship behavior were examined for their prediction of both affective and cognitive learning. The measure of observed classroom citizenship behavior was created for the purposes of the current study. Observed classroom citizenship behavior positively correlated with classroom citizenship behavior. Specifically, the involvement, affiliation, and courtesy subscales correlated with overall classroom citizenship behavior and their respective subscales but not with other citizenship behavior subscales. This suggests that only certain types of citizenship behaviors relate to the engagement or observation of those behaviors. Observed citizenship behavior was also found to be correlated with all other predictor variables as well as both measures of affective learning. Regression analyses revealed that rapport was the only predictor variable that predicted all measures of student learning. This suggests that a harmonious relationship with the instructor is a better predictor of student learning than general friendliness and attentiveness of the instructor, a collaborative bond with the instructor, behavior of the student, or perceptions of other classmates

The “Black Experience” as Preparation for Participation in Global Partnerships

The lived experiences of African Americans, along with their reliance on God, serve as preparation for participation in global mission partnerships. The “Black Experience,” characterized by suffering, dehumanization, violence, and survival has provided the African American community with a toolkit that can be used to teach others how to survive their own suffering as they too rely on God. Long-term African American missionaries have sent out a clarion call requesting that the African American church step up to the plate and join them in spreading the Gospel message “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8)

Handbook for the Champaign County Youth Detention Center

This handbook was developed to serve the needs of the Champaign County Youth Detention Center and interested community members. It is also designed to serve as a guideline for future handbooks at the center and for other agencies which may require such a handbook. This handbook should eliminate any confusion concerning regulations and policy of the center and prove to be satisfactory replacement for single sheet information which was formerly used. There was an apparent need for this handbook to replace the intake folder and thereby provide a more useful and meaningful method of transmitting vitally important information to concerned individuals. Hopefully this handbook will successfully perform that function. On preparing the handbook the present philosophy of the administration was included. Obviously this philosophy is subject to change, especially if there is a change in the administration personnel. There is also included a short history and hopefully a future volume will improve on this area. The handbook also contains a fairly good list of definitions which should prove useful to the center personnel and to the resdients of the center, however, this list may require some additions and perhaps some deletions in a future volume. It should be understood that the body of this handbook is highly flexible and is subject to change as the administration deems necessary

Dynamics of the Forward Curve and Volatility of Energy Futures Prices

The shapes of forward curves of energy commodities are believed to contain information on the volatility of futures prices for these commodities. The slope of the forward curve not only reflects temporal supply and demand conditions, but also the relationship between current and expected market conditions. However, no empirical investigation exists in the literature on whether utilising information on the slopes of the forward curves of energy commodities can improve one’s ability to capture the dynamics of the volatility of the futures prices of these commodities. The aim of this study is to undertake such an investigation. Daily energy futures prices traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) over the period January 1997 to December 2006 are used to estimate the parameters of an augmented transition EGARCH model that allows for changes in the model’s parameters based on the forward curve. The forecasting performance of the model is compared to that of other models in predicting the volatility of energy futures prices over the period January 2007 to December 2008. The results provide strong support in favour of a convex relationship between the volatility of energy futures prices and the forward curve

Bank risk in a decade of low interest rates

A low interest rate regime remains in place in the U.S. after the Financial Crisis of 2008. Banks nevertheless need to find ways to boost the economic value to shareholders. This research examine whether it is possible for banks to stay the course and pursue profitable yet riskier assets or investments regardless of the fact that regulators have put restrictions on banks’ asset portfolio formation and capital ratio. This study hypothesizes that banks still engage in highly risky yet profitable investments or services to offset low interest income even after the 2008 Financial Crisis. A panel VAR model and a dynamic GMM model incorporating two structural breaks are employed to examine bank data obtained from the FFIEC from 2003 thru 2014. This study suggests that banks, especially larger banks, still have strong incentives to undertake riskier projects with higher expected returns in order to increase their performance. This has implications for policy makers examining risks inherent to the banking system

The effects of weather on fungal abundance and richness among 25 communities in the Intermountain West

BACKGROUND: Because moisture and temperature influence the growth of fungi, characterizing weather conditions favorable for fungi may be used to predict the abundance and richness of fungi in habitats with different climate conditions. To estimate habitat favorability to fungi, we examined the relationship of fungal abundance and species richness to various weather and environmental parameters in the Intermountain West. We cultured fungi from air and leaf surfaces, and collected continuous temperature and relative humidity measures over the growing season at 25 sites. RESULTS: Fungal richness was positively correlated with fungal abundance (r = 0.75). Measures of moisture availability, such as relative humidity and vapor pressure deficit, explained more of the variance in fungal abundance and richness than did temperature. Climate measurements from nearby weather stations were good predictors of fungal abundance and richness but not as good as weather measurements obtained in the field. Weather variables that took into account the proportion of time habitats experienced favorable or unfavorable relative humidity and temperatures were the best predictors, explaining up to 56% of the variation in fungal abundance and 72% for fungal richness. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that the abundance and richness of fungi in a habitat is limited by the duration of unfavorable weather conditions. Because fungal pathogens likely have similar abiotic requirements for growth as other fungi, characterizing weather conditions favorable for fungi also may be used to predict the selective pressures imposed by pathogenic fungi on plants in different habitats

A Systems Architectural Model for Man-Packable/Operable Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Mini/Micro Aerial Vehicles

With the increase in both technology push and operational pull of mini/micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) within DoD organizations, an understanding of their interactions and capabilities is necessary. Many MAVs have already been developed for a specific usage and much speculation has been made on their future uses. Despite the growth of MAVs, there is currently no overarching systems architecture which would envelop and guide the DoD\u27s MAV development efforts. The goal of this thesis is to apply sound systems engineering principals to develop a MAV architectural model describing their use in three separate but closely related mission areas: Over-the-Hill-Reconnaissance, Battle Damage Information, and Local Area Defense. This thesis focuses on single-man packable/operable MAVs utilized by small ground units synonymous with special operations forces. The three mission areas are combined to define a single overarching Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) MAV architecture. This architecture focuses on the current state of ISR MAVs and provides a baseline current capability. From this architecture, areas of interest relating to MAVs and their use in the DoD are discussed, focusing on enhancing both current and future capabilities of MAVs

Freshwater displacement effect on the Weddell Gyre carbon budget

This work was funded by NSF's Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling (SOCCOM) Project under NSF awards PLR-1425989 and OPP-1936222. G.A.M was additionally supported under UKRI Grant MR/W013835/1. M.R.M. also acknowledges support from NASA grant 80NSSC20K1076 and NSF grants OCE-1924388 and OPP-2149501.The Weddell Gyre mediates carbon exchange between the abyssal ocean and atmosphere, which is critical to global climate. This region also features large and highly variable freshwater fluxes due to seasonal sea ice, net precipitation, and glacial melt; however, the impact of these freshwater fluxes on the regional carbon cycle has not been fully appreciated. Using a novel budget analysis of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) mass in the Biogeochemical Southern Ocean State Estimate, we highlight two freshwater-driven transports. Where freshwater with minimal DIC enters the ocean, it displaces DIC-rich seawater outwards, driving a lateral transport of 75 ± 5 Tg DIC/year. Additionally, sea ice export requires a compensating import of seawater, which carries 48 ± 11 Tg DIC/year into the gyre. Though often overlooked, these freshwater displacement effects are of leading order in the Weddell Gyre carbon budget in the state estimate and in regrouped box-inversion estimates, with implications for evaluating basin-scale carbon transport.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe